Several years ago I spent countless hours transferring VHS tapes to DVD. They worked fine for awhile, but now I am finding most of them to freeze up for 2-3 seconds, sometimes several times in a minute. What is likely causing this?
Corruption of the actual DVD, or a problem with the DVD player? Very frustrating! Are there any products that can alleviate this?

Someone shine the Bat Signal for Andy Brown.

About the only thing I am aware of is windex ! If it cleans up, it is fixed. I know that scratches on the CD can cause a lot of problems,even small ones.

It can be the DVD player as well, the eye is dirty. It is hard to find this single eye now, as many are usuing laser lights and what not these days, its not like the old DENON players we had at OK95. I would borrow or rent another DVD player and check out each DVD or many of them and see if they do the same lock ups in the other player.

"Corruption of the actual DVD, or a problem with the DVD player?"

Yes. :-)

The way to figure out which it is:

Does a replicated disc (rental disc or retail purchased disc) freeze up on the player in question?

It's the player.

Does the home burned disc(s) freeze up on different players?

It's the media. Did you use decent media (TDK, Fuji, Sony) or is it cheap stuff like Memorex?

Does a recently burned disc behave the same way? (i.e. does it play on the machine that burned it flawlessly?) The laser diode is rated in hours, and it might be below spec making new burns incompletely and causing problems in playback. It may have other problems causing this as well.

Go to top.

Burned DVDs may "fade" with time:

http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media

I am seeing some problems on DVDs that I burned 5-6 years go

The VHS tapes that I copied to DVD (some from as early as 1977) still play fine, however.

Thanks! New/rented DVD's don't do it, so it must not be the player. I used TDK on most of my stuff. What I don't get is if they worked for awhile, what would cause them to fail after a few years? Heck, some of my VHS tapes have survived 25 years, although they are starting to die at an alarming rate recently.

Jr. Tech, didn't see your post until now. Sounds pretty technical. What with different kind of dyes and such. I just want them to work!

Older DVD players will have some trouble playing home recorded DVD's.
Make sure the DVD's won't play in a newer player.

Also, I don't know how accurate this is, but I seem to have better luck if I back off on the recording speed a little.

Perhaps the best advice from the article:

"Unlike pressed CDs/DVDs, ‘burnt’ CDs/DVDs can eventually ‘fade’, due to five things that effect the quality of CD media: Sealing method, reflective layer, organic dye makeup, where it was manufactured, and your storage practices (please keep all media out of direct sunlight, in a nice cool dry dark place, in acid-free plastic containers; this will triple the lifetime of any media)."

"what would cause them to fail after a few years?"

Jr. Tech's article sort of dances around the issues involved.

Let me answer the second question first. Tapes are electromagnetic images impressed upon a multilayered medium. Without goobering up the discussion in technical mumbo jumbo, the reasons a tape recording (in any format, analog or digital) has a limited lifespan primarily rests in two categories: 1. They get demagnetized from EMF in the air, no matter how carefully you avoid storing them near motors and compressors. 2. The tape itself starts to lose its information as the coating dries up and eventually separates from the plastic.

A CD or DVD is opto-electronic. Unlike tape, discs can be made in two distinct ways. They can be individually burned or mass produced (replication) using a glass master and an electro-mechanical process much like vinyl. Burning is great for occasional use but is not recommended for long term archiving.
Replication is too expensive unless you want hundreds or thousands of copies (preferably thousands). Replicated discs have a longer shelf life because they are "stamped" and not burned. Although both methods have plenty of things that can go wrong, burning is prone to all the problems we know and love from small format tape (cassettes, 8 tracks, mini-cassettes, and even multi-track. If the heads of the playback and record machines are ever so slightly out of alignment, you're screwed.

In the optical world, alignment is also an issue. Cheap players abound. It reminds me of floppy discs and all the problems encountered with them in the 80's.

The best archival strategy at home demands re-archiving every 10 to 15 years using the best methods you can afford.

Since you've been using good media, the next questionable area is the quality of the burns which goes to the quality of the burner. Consumer equipment just doesn't perform as well, even out of the box, than the broadcast tools many of us have worked with.

Remedy: Try playing these discs in a decent computer. If they don't freeze up, copy them to a new disc or to a hard drive, or both.

Thanks again, I knew you guys would have some answers!

Replication is too expensive unless you want hundreds or thousands of copies (preferably thousands).

For example: Duplication at a professional video production house will run about $200 for 50 DVDs shipped on a spool. Replication for 1,000 DVDs will cost about $450-500. There is no real savings for less than 1k copies. Custom menu extra.

First off, Do NOT use Fry's GQ brand.
I have found that good quality blanks is important. Memorex is a big name but I have had problems with Memorex. I have not had any bad TDK's. I have had maybe 1 or 2 bad out of a 100 cake of Fuji. I have found that my best results are with genuine Taiyo Yuden.
I generally do not burn a video DVD at greater than 8X. I also only burn -R. I can and have done +R but I have an old Sony DVD player and it is picky. I found that if it Plays a disk, it will play on any player. I have had some bad +R burns that play on some players but not that one. Since I make and burn many disks that I sell or burn for others to sell, I cannot have returns. Therefore, from experience, I now only use -R media. I have used Sony media that has been supplied to me that have been good, also.

Currently, I have a Sony 50 pack I am working on for someone, a TDK 100 pack that I use, also for DVD data storage, and about 200 blank Taiyo Yudens that I am working with for customers.

I haven't used Memorex for over 4 years.

There used to be a site called nomorecoasters.com. It is a good site for info and ratings of different disks. It is now called:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/media/index.htm

It is a good site for info.